If you had £5k to spend on a small car

[Yoloohno]

What would you buy?

it needs to have 5 seats and a boot and preferably as new as possible and needs to be insurance for a young driver.

Any ideas appreciated, thanks.

@newbiename my 1st Gen i10 was group 12. My new one is group 5.

2nd hand Toyota Aygo. So easy to drive, so reliable!

I had Ford Fiestas for years and liked them but prefer my Aygo now.

100% Kia Picanto

I'm on my second

Should be able to get something on low mileage for the price. Pretty damn good on fuel effiency. Always had good servicing experience and sales experience with Kia dealership.

You might JUST get one inside the warrantee period on that.

Hyundai i20. Fab car. We had one of these before we got our Tuscon. It was so reliable and DH said it was lovely to drive (I don’t drive for medical reasons)

Another i10 lover, it’s cute, compact. Goes well and is rathe ideal.

Skoda Fabia! Always comes out near the top in reliability surveys

Citroen C1. It's what I bought 2 years old low mileage. I've had it 3 years now and hardly spent a penny on it other than Mot and tyres.

Contrary to lots of posters, I would never buy a Hyundai. I inherited my mum’s i10 and it was such a dog of a car, constantly needing oil, alternator went, transmission went, engine light on all the time…we scrapped it even tho it had only done 80,000. Maybe we were unlucky tho.

Last year I bought an 18 plate Toyota Aygo for £5.4k and it’s great. Reliable, good economy, goes at 75 on the motorway no probs (unlike the rattletrap i10) lovely car. Base model so no air con tho hahaha 🌞🌞

Aygos are great small cars, but you'll be lucky to get an 18 plate for under £8k at the moment.

Wow really? I genuinely paid 5.4 and it had only done 12k as well. I drive 250 miles a week just to work and back and it’s been aces (mileage higher now haha).

Just read the Hyundai i10 loving posts to DD and she laughed. Maybe ours was a Friday afternoon one. I was very glad to leave it at the dealers last year. The only people who were sorry were the folk at my local garage who had been fixing it up for the previous two years. I needed a loyalty card!

Actually the Aygo only seats four (not an issue for me) and I assume the VW Up and Citroen C1 are the same so maybe no use for you @Yoloohno

Had a great little Kia Piccanto sister to the I10 cheap as chips didn’t miss a beat in 7 yr

Vauxhall corsa

Micra or yarris...vw quality is poor in comparison now....our two japanese cars are 22 years old....never go wrong of fail mot...!!

Smart ForFour Premium is a surprisingly nice car, well specced and you can configure boot and back seats to use it as a small can.

Not sure it can seat five though.

people mention hyundai or kia....thin metal...some are poor quality...parts can be extortionate.

I'm another i10 fan. I have one and so does my DS. Cheap to run and reliable.

We got our Hyundai I10 in March and bloody love it!

I think Ds3 is a great option. I bought 1 for myself and another for 18 year old DD. Both are the 1.6 diesel. No road tax, leg room enough for my 6'4" DP to drive it, getting over 50 mpg and cheap to insure, handles well even on motorways. She thinks it has a bit of street cred too.

Had my last one for 12 years. Hardly needed anything doing to it. Maintence was minimual.

@ChiefWiggumsBoy

My dd is insured on my 2l and it only cost £80 extra, was 20 at the time I added her

Electric car for less than 5k www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202207218004302

A 10 year old write off...

Hmm just searched on Autotrader and found about 10 Toyota Aygos reg in 2018 and 2019 for 6,500 or less. Some pretty low mileage too. So not quite £8,000. Maybe mine is not for sale after all.

I have a Toyota Aygo and I would suggest taking any small car with a small engine on a comprehensive test drive, especially if you're having a new driver in it....

• Check what the power is like in 3rd and 5th for pulling away and overtaking. Can you put your foot down and get out of a tricky or mis-judged situation?


• Can you see over Land Rovers and other huge cars at junctions (are you hidden by large cars?).


• Can you pull away in 2nd?

As much as I love my Aygo (zero road tax, very economical on fuel, no issues with MOT or servicing and it's now 7 years old), it is not a car I would have a new driver in. I am virtually invisible on the road, zero power in 3rd especially uphill and nothing in 5th either, fine for cruising but not for overtaking.

In fact the best car we had as an all rounder was a C3 Picasso. Very forgiving drive, tight turning circle and a high seating position so good visibility. Sadly not manufactured since 2017 I think.